The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-03-25
AWAY DOWN In FLORIDA.


WIFI THE SENATORIAL PARTY FROM
CHARLESTON TO JACKSONVILLE.
The Biggest Town in Florida and Its
Northern PopuIation-Fish in Summer,
Sick Yankees in Winter-Oranges and
Strawberries and Hot Weather.
Especial Correspondence
JACKSONVILLE, March 10.
I write this letter in Jacksonville, the lead
ing commercial center of Florida. 1t is the
entering point of the state, and is the starting
place for the north and south. With $4,000
inhabitants in the winter and about half that
number in summer it bustles now during
the season with southern life. It contains
good stores, fine houses. and it looks different
from Charleston as the pictures of death
do from those of of life. The Sen-
atorial party is at the Windsor hotel, and
the scenes about us are those of Saratoga
rather than of a city many hundred miles
south Of New York. THIS hotel has office,
carpets, billiard rooms and wide verandas, like
the great sea side hotels of the Atlantic coast,
and it is crowded with wealthy northern men
and women. You hear on every side the
accent of the Yankee, and the support OF
Jacksonville is we'll indicated by the answer,
which little negro boy gave to my question
as to what they did here to make living.
He said: "In de summer, sab, we lives off
de fishes, and in de winter we lives off de sick
Yankees"
The sick Yankees of Florida are numbered
by the tens of thousands, and there are other
tens of thousands of well Yankees who come
south to get the glorious climate which
this state has in the winter. To-day
is like Ohio in June. Winter undercloth-
ing is unpleasantly warm. | write by an
open window, and Senator Sherman and
Gen. McCook have just returned from ride
which they took without their overcoats. In
front of me there is a large park filled with
orange groves and the yellow fruit shows
out from the bushy tops of bright green
leaves. I noticed many roses blooming i'll the
gardens as / drove about the city, and we
picked wild flowers yesterday evening at
Savannah, miles north of here. The stores
here have their straw hats conspicuously dis
played and the negro children are barefoot.
The peas are in bloom and we had delicious
Strawberries for breakfast. This city is lined
leaf, and the plants grow most luxuriantly in
the gardens The houses are large and some
of them are northern in their styles of archi-
lecture I saw one cottage which looked as
though it might have been built for one of
the suburban towns of New York city, and
the style of the stores is distinctvely northern.
They have good storerooms, and all kinds of
stores carry large stocks of goods. The
groceries are especially good, and the jewelry
stores show that they live of northern money.
.**
Jacksonville is full of big hotels and board
ing houses 1t is plainly watering place,
and its accommodations show that it
paws to cater to the tastes of the wealthy.
Many of the hotels are run by northerners,
and the Windsor, which is one of the best in
Florida, is managed by Vermonter. The
city has street cars 1t is lighted with gas,
and it's water comes from an altesian well.
We drove out to this and found the well made
a beautiful Fountain sending up heavy
spray which fell like an. umbrella of diamonds
into a great basin and was carried from
thence to the city in pipes. The water is like
crystal, and it has, when it first snurts r.
W rd. a strong sui phur odor. 1t tastes OF
s,1 phur too, but this sulphur smell and taste
mass off. I am told, after the water has stood
for a short time, leaving it as sweet as that OF
the purest mountain spring.
~.
The land of north Florida, at least that
through which we have so far Travelled, is
not inviting to northern eyes. We miss the
green sod, and the sandy, scrubby growth
which takes its place is no comparison to the
blue grass of the north An acre of velvety
lawn is more beautiful to my eyes than all
the flowers, orange groves and pines OF these
tropical lands. and the country about here,
with all it's luxuriance, has not the still life
beauty OF the rich blue grass regions Of the
north. The lands surrounding this city are
laid out in streets and lots for great
distance Trees have been planted, and o.
paper doubt not the property looks very at
tractive It is not so to the eye. Ragge'
grass somewhat like our northern swamp
grass grows upon it, Parts of it need drain
age, and the color of the grass now, when it
should be as green as the emerald, is of hay
colored brown The trees, which are scattered
sparsely over it, are of the short leaf pine,
tall and lean, with no branches till they burst
forth in umbrella shaped foliage at the top.
They give little shade, and one could not be
comfortable sitting on the half sandy, i'll
covered with verdure soil beneath them. There
were few gardens in the country about Jack
sonville through which we drove, and saw
but few garden patches about the smaller
houses of the city. The town has been made
by northern tourists and by its commercial
location making it the chief shipping and
stopoyer place of the state. 1t has great
hopes for the future, however, and has grown
from about 1,700 to as many thousands in
twenty years. #%#
Just here want to say few words about
Charleston. I was surprised at its many ele-
CANT old mansions, and at some fine new ones.
There are more large houses in it than any OF
the other cities Of GO, 900 in the United States.
On East Bay street, facing the harbor, are
houses after houses bigger than that of James
G. Blaine's at Washington, and on Meeting
street there are houses big enough to enter
tain monarch and his retinue All of these
houses, as I told you in my last letter,
have wide porches running enc above the
other along one side. Windows and doors
open out on to these, and they are from eight
to twelve feet wide. These porches or gal
leries are never in front of the houses, and
they are in the better class of houses upheld
by round wooden or stone pillars. They usu-
ally look out upon gardens, and the Charles I
ton house has its lawn and garden at one
side Of it, next the galleries, and never in its
front OF on both sides. The houses are close
to the street, and their one end forms the line
between their owners property and their
neighbor's. There many houses in Charles
ton which could not be reproduced for
$50 and one new one, Senator Palmer
estimated, must have cost at least $100, 900
Many Of these fine houses were almost ruined
by the earthquake, but the scaffoldngs sur
round these and they are being repaired
Back of many of these big old mansions still
stand the negro quarters, and the large num-
ber of negroes on the streets show the exist
ence OF this great element Of the soutl's popu-
lation. They are more picturesque than thu
colored people of the north and are more
polite. They tip their hats to strangers, and
the women wear bright colored handkerchief
ttirbans. They seem to laugh more and they
evidently enjoy life more than the whites.
Not few of them had things to sell to-
strangers, and ON the boat going to Fert
Sumter little old auntie ip d striped ging
ham turban sold the ladies of the party
ltlIe dolls made of hickory MS
for heads ard sticks stuck into them
for bodies. On the heads of the dolls were
fastened little turhans like those worn by the
negroes, and their dresses were OF the same
kind as theirs The heads of these hickory
INIT hpaf1exi dolls had l,ean r0lornd blaek and